Duplicate Name exists on Network!

[TGK MCP]

Here's the problem I have been dealing with and can't seem to fix. I have a Windows XP Pro Laptop, Intel celeron 700 MHz with 576 MB of Ram in it. Everything works fine at my house and used to work fine when I brought the laptop into the office. Now for the past few weeks I get a message at the Welcome screen telling me that a duplicate name exists on the network. After logging in locally I ocassionally got network access. I have renamed the laptop and that fixed the problem for a while. But its starting up again. Do you think the issue is on the W2k Server or my laptop? Any Ideas? We did have a virus on the Server and this stems back to around the same time. As far as I can tell all traces of that virus are gone.

[Mntsnow]

When at work are you logging in to a DOMAIN? If so you need to get your admin to setup an account for your laptop and you need to make sure you always use THAT account when connecting the laptop to the Domain.
I take it that the W2K server at work is also performing DHCP services correct? If so have your admin check to see how long it leases the and keeps name resolution on the server. Are you Positive that NO ONE has another laptop that was named the same as yours at any time. What policies does your network admin use for restrictions...are accounts setup or can anyone auto join the domain if they can plug in to the network?

[TGK MCP]

Its a small buisness With 5 of us there. Me and one other guy are the Admins. I am the only one with a laptop, so I know the name is unique. Yes it is a Domain but none of the PC's are actually joined to it. we all have our user accounts and Exchange is running on the server. We have kept all 5 PC's in workgroup mode. Don't ask me why but thats the way they want it. If it was up to me we would all have to join the Domain. The router is doing the DHCP. The weird thing is that after getting the message I login to my laptop, and will eventually get network access after about 2 minutes. I have tried everything I can think of except rebuilding the Server or my laptop. I think it may have something to do with the virus that the server had. (W32/Lovgate.f@M virus) and (BackDoor-AQJ trojan). Any other thoughts?

[Mntsnow]

Well As for having a virus get on the server I personally from a admin point of view I would have wiped that box and rebuilt it. Expesally with you having had a backdoor trojan as you might never know if they actually got in and opened some other exploits without something that a scanner would detect. I'm almost wondering if your having issues with the DHCP not releasing quick enough when the laptop has been removed from the network for your network access problem.

[TGK MCP]

Yeah I just remotely checked the server and did another virus scan on it. Same stuff, all over the box. I suggested to my coworkers a rebuild. hopefully they will agree.

[TGK MCP]

Just an update

The virus that infected our server was the W32/lovgate.l@m. I am building a new server and copying the data over. The virus is a pain in the neck to get rid of.

[TGK MCP]

I rebuilt a new server, Got it all confiigured and all was working fine for a few weeks now. Started having the duplicate name issue again, as well as some random Internet connectivity issues. Here is what I did to rectify the problem..
We have a netopia cayman 3341 dsl modem /router, which is doing the DHCP. I set up the 2k server to handle DHCP with a scope of higher numbers than the router. I also set a reservation on the 2k server for my laptop to always get the same IP. So far I have had no issues. Would anyone know why I was having the problem when the router was issuing the IP to my laptop?

[Mntsnow]

what was the lease times set to on the router? Was there any additional hubs/switches between the router and your laptop? Where you logging into a domain or workgroup?

[TGK MCP]

Lease times were set to 5 days. There is a 10/100 16 port Dlink switch at the router and a 10 MB Linksys Hub in the room where I sit.We have a domain setup like I said in the original posts, however everyone is logging into the local PC's not the domain. The local account passwords match those that are on the PDC.

[BBA]

The only time I have ever seen a duplicate machine name error is when another machine is using the same name as the one in question.

Do you have a wireless network established? If so, what are the access controls like MAC/security key settings or such? Also, if so, have you seen any graffiti drawn on a wall of the building your in?

My suggestion is next time it happens, rename your system, then see if you can ping or connect to the old name over the network. If you can, someone would in fact be using your systems name...either trying to spoof your system to gain network access or by actually using your systems name on theirs for some other reason.

[TGK MCP]

No its a very small wired network. Total of 6 PC's including my laptop. No graffiti on the walls that I have seen =) Since I made the change this morning making the W2k Server do the DHCP and reserving an IP for my laptop I have had no problems. Another thing I was seeing was a delay in accessing the Exchange box. I think I have fixed the problem, but what I really want to know is what caused it. Looks to be the router, but why? I will update this post if the problem reoccurs though.
-Tom

[RobSimkins]

Hi I am having the same problem.

Network of 5 PCs, all Win 2k or XP. The fileserver we use is a Sun Cobalt Qube 3, it serves as a network storage device and user/group settings.

I am a junior net admin, never configured a domain or clients of a domain. I didnt configure this network. All PCs connect to a workgroup as oppose to a domain. They were connecting fine and each PC had various drives mapped to the Qube.

Problem began the morning after a power cut. All PCs had shut off, the Qube and the ADSL router had powered back up. When we log on now we get the error msg and no network connectivity.

p.s. Every device can be pinged. The Qube reports no problems. DHCP is only present on the router. I have changed nothing since the power cut. From a web search on the err msg I see a lot of SAMBA unix based problems, also NetBIOS vs Win Client? The Qube is unix based.

TIA

Rob

[Mntsnow]

Rob Have you tried doing a ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew on the systems to see if they can get a valid dhcp ip issued? Have you logged into the router and double checked that the dhcp pool is still correctly configured?

btw Welcome to XPC Rob!

[RobSimkins]

Thanks Mntsnow,

The DHCP is as it was, the IPs have been renewed and there seems to be nothing different than before. I rebooted the Qube, rebooted the machines, checked the workgroup and PC names. Nothing wrong but no connection!

I am thinking that maybe a virus has got on the network, though I wouldnt know how to virus check the Qube.

Any other ideas?

Rob

[RobSimkins]

I changed the workgroup name and we are back in action. Now I suppose we wait until it happens again and change back.

????

[PipSqueek]

I just experienced the same error message, and finally remedied it, however, another way. I couldnt connect to my network, yet, the adapter seemed to be installed properly.

My specs:
Pentium 3
Win2k Pro
Linksys LNE100TX Net Adapter
Novell 5 Network
Novell Client 4.90

Initially, I change the COMPUTER NAME to various names, but, still couldnt connect, and still received the "duplicate name" message.
Then, I noticed that the adapter was sharing the same IRQ as my USB. Just for the hell of it, I uninstalled my client software and adapter from Device Mgr. I shutdown, and moved my net adapter to a different PCI slot. When I rebooted into windows, I had to reinstall the adapter drivers. I didnt have the "dupe" message appear when I entered my desktop.

After that I ran IPCONFIG /ALL, and finally saw our gateway, and an IP address had been issued to this workstation, thru DHCP. At that point, I reinstlled the Novell client, and finally saw my server/container, to connect.

My prob was a little more than yours, but, maybe there are some parallels?

Btw, I never changed my Workgroup name, thru all of it.

HTH

[Mntsnow]

Welcome to XPC PipSqueek.

Thanks for sharing what ended up being your fix. Hopefully it might help someone else in the future too! :)

[lordra]

Help:::
I'm using a linksys switch with my linux file server and my windows xp pro machine. when I click on the Samba Server icon in network neighborhood i get.

duplicate name exists on the network this service is not permitted to you.

i ran ipconfig \all and came up with a one day lease time
how do you change these things or ame i in the wrong neighborhood :}

chris
lordra@bellsouth.net

:bunny:

[Shane]

im no network genius or anything. but i was recieving the same error "duplicate name exists on network" i did lots of reading and nothing helped. so i did the simplest thing and checked my pcs name, some how my pcs name got changed to my workgroup name, dont know how maybe something i did not sure. but anyways i renamed my pc, rebooted and the duplicate name exists on network error was gone. not sure if this will help any of you out, but it helped fix the problem for me.